The Next Level On From Indifference
by somewhatbizarre
Summary: There are some things that people expect of others. For example, Poppy was expected to drown herself in books over the summer. On the other hand, Sirius was not. This did not stop him from doing so. It doesn't all come down to books, of course. Most would argue it came down to firewhisky induced rants, a large friendship group, what is expected of you and (admiteddly) a few books.
1. Literary Purposes

**Hi everyone! I've had this story planned out for so long now so I'm so chuffed to finally publish the first chapter. I'm proud of it, but constructive criticism (or praise...) is always appreciated! Enjoy, xx**

* * *

There are some things in life that are not surprising at all. For example, no one is noticeably astonished when the sun rises. It is also not surprising that a child attends school. In fact, it is more surprising if these things are not the case. This works the same way with people, however there isn't a consistent rule. You may be surprised that your uncle hadn't had any alcohol for over a year. On the contrary, it may be a shock that your aunt had a glass of wine. In a similar fashion, it did not surprise any of Poppy Coogan's friends and family at all that she had spent most of the summer holiday in bed with a book. It did surprise Sirius Black's friends and his (unofficial) family that he had read four books in the same amount of weeks.

This was not to say that Poppy was intelligent and hard working whilst Sirius was not - Sirius was very intelligent and could be hard working. Poppy was very hard working and could be intelligent.

The only person who was not surprised at Sirius' newfound interest in literature was his closest friend, James Potter. James had been fully prepared for this as he had been the one who had suggested (admittedly whilst somewhat intoxicated) that Sirius should read more for one simple reason:

'Pads... Pads. Girls move len... I mean love men... who read.'

At first, Sirius was a tad unsure.

'No one hot reads, Prongs.'

James Potter disagreed.

'That's not false - whoops, true. Evans r-reads. So does Freya Richardson and Gillian P-Palmer.'

'Gillian's n-not as nice as Poppy Coogan.'

'Poppy reads too, Pads.'

'I know! She has a nice accent.'

'She hates me... no, not me. You!'

Sirius gasped. 'Does she?'

James laughed for a longer time than necessary. 'No, 'course not. She just isn't obsessed with you.'

'That's offensive...!'

Sirius didn't even remember the conversation he had had with his best friend. He remembered mentioning Gillian Palmer, but he did not remember that it was essentially James Potter pointing out that Poppy wasn't infatuated with him that provoked him reading. Poppy confused him a bit - she was in Gryffindor, like him, and she'd never shown romantic interest in him. All the other girls in her dormitory had at some point, but not her (or Evans, come to think of it). Then again, she hadn't ever been interested in anyone much beyond Remus. She seemed to have a soft spot for him (that both she and him denied whenever it was mentioned). That also confused Sirius; of course, Remus was lovely and not bad looking and kind and reliable, but he was Sirius Black and he must have had some form of romantic attachment with over a third of the female population of Hogwarts. Maybe if he asked Poppy what her favourite book was (or got Remus to do it) and then read it to make a conversation starter.

Sirius had no romantic intentions with Poppy. She was bookish, hard working and loyal. He knew that she was fun as well (although apparently only under the influence of post Quidditch house pride and a few glasses of firewhisky), but not enough for him. He simply saw her as a challenge that he was yet to attempt - one of the few seventh years who had not had a boyfriend (even when given the opportunity) would be a real prize for his cabinet. He'd probably snog her and then end it off but that would be enough. Prongs would think it great, and it might wake Poppy up to the fact that a pretty girl like her not having had a boyfriend by seventh year was just sad. He was fully aware that this was completely immoral, but sometimes immoral things were fun. In some cases, they were wrong - Sirius knew this more than most.

As Sirius realised what he'd been thinking, he let out a sharp laugh. Really? Poppy? Poppy Coogan? _Goody Two Shoes Coogan?_ Sure, she was attractive enough but even he had some interest in a girl's personality, and Poppy was downright _dull_. He'd said as much to James just a few days ago, when James had tried to reason that Poppy was actually a great lass. He would of course, what with Poppy being close with Lily sodding Evans. If Lily took interest in a dungbeetle, James would suddenly realise how enthralling it was. Sirius shook his head; Poppy bloody Coogan. Why would he waste his time on attempting to snog her when he could go after someone else? Now, Rachel Euston... _she_ was someone that Sirius wouldn't mind getting shoved in a broom cupboard with...

* * *

It was early August and it was a gloriously sunny day in Liverpool. For this reason, Poppy was in her garden reading, accompanied by her cat, Cuthbert. Lost in the world of Scout Finch, it took Poppy a couple of minutes to notice a tawny owl (belonging to James Potter) had landed on her lawn. The owl, clearly a bit tired of being ignored, gave a pointed hoot.

'Bloody he- Zeus! You gave me the fright of my life!' Poppy exclaimed, jumping up of the lawn, dislodging a disgruntled Cuthbert from her lap in the process. She brushed some grass of her legs and went to take the letter from Zeus' beak. Zeus, she thought, was not a very fitting name for the owl. He was elderly and lazy, and very frightened of most things. She sat back down and opened the letter.

* * *

Poops,

First of all, hello. I must say that I am disappointed with you having only written me three letters (_This was not true - Poppy had written four_) yet I will let this go as I am sure you had a valid reason.

Secondly, I must insist that we meet up very soon, as I have some literary matters that I wish to discuss with you, such as GEORGE ORWELL'S WRITING, BY MERLIN.

That man has changed my way of thinking, honestly. Now I understand why you read a lot; you have fantastic taste in books, Poops. I lent your copy of 1984 to Sirius, so I am also going to apologise prematurely if isn't returned.

Anyway, returning to the afore mentioned meet up, where would you fancy (In case you haven't realised, it is happening. You have no say in the matter)? It is your turn for activities, so I'm all for seeing a muggle sport, apparating to London and spending a day in Camden afterwards?

Merlin, I am bored. Of course, I haven't bombarded Evans with letters this summer as I am truly beyond that so I haven't had much to amuse me beyond Sirius, who's been visiting his cousin, Andromeda, a fair bit. Remus and Peter have been over a few times but I am certainly lacking a female presence in my life (Sirius doesn't count).

Hoping to hear my favourite little Scouse accent within a week or two!

Write back soon, wench, or I may have to knock you off the Quidditch team next year.

James

* * *

Poppy grinned and dashed inside to fetch a quill and some parchment from her room, eager to write back.

* * *

James,

Dear, dear Potter... you may be fantastic at Transfiguration and all that but you definitely need to revise the basic, muggle primary school things. I suggest starting with counting - I sent you four letters, bellend.

You read them! Merlin, aren't they fantastic? How do you feel about the ending of 1984? That book is astounding. I must say I am a tad anxious about it being in the hands of Black, however I assume you've warned him I will hex him if he breaks or harms it in anyway.

Is Snape a greasy slimeball? Of course that sounds great! Mum and Dad would be ecstatic if you stayed the night? I'm sure Dermot could stay at a friend's for the night and you could have his room? I'm thinking I'll take you to the Liverpool vs Newcastle match (is this Saturday aka the day after tomorrow alright?) and then we'll stay at mine, then apparate to London for the next day. Mum's given me money for a new broom, so we can stop off at Diagon Alley too. That alright?

Owl me soon!

(Can't wait to hear my favourite oh-wait-you-don't-really-have-a-distinguishable-accent-because-you're-a-proper-little-posh-twat soon!)

Poops

* * *

Poppy closed the letter and gave it to Zeus along with a treat. He hooted and flew off on his way back to the Potter's home and Poppy collapsed onto her bed. The Coogan household was in a suburban area of Kirkdale, Liverpool and was usually, given the four teenagers occupying it, a mad house. There was Sam - the youngest, at fourteen, who was in Ravenclaw, like her mother. Sam was three years younger than her older sister, and in the words of Lily Evans, 'devastatingly popular'. It was true - Sam was bright, popular, funny, pretty and good at Quidditch. Poppy often wondered how one child got all the good genes. Next was Dermot, a muscular sixth year in Hufflepuff who was fairly average at most things apart from Transfiguration, which was by far his forte. He maintained slightly above average grades and behaviour and his parents were very proud of him. The eldest, Zara, was in Slytherin, and very proud of it. Despite the reputation of the house, it seemed to Poppy that Zara had not got involved with anything to do with the dark arts, aside from being the girlfriend of Gregory Mulciber, whose youngest brother was in Poppy's year. Gregory was obviously infatuated with the dark arts, but Zara wasn't and could look after herself.

Lastly, there was Poppy. Poppy Elisabeth Coogan was in Gryffindor, meaning that there had been a Coogan sibling in each of the four Hogwarts houses. Poppy, in her own opinion, was nothing spectacular. She was an average height with a slim build, she had dark brown eyes and long, wavy blonde hair - a trait envied by her dormmates, but Poppy often said they looked like rats's tails. She wore glasses for about half of her waking life, as she needed them for reading. Her grades were above average, but only because she worked hard for them. Poppy was Keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and supported the Appleby Arrows. Her nicknames ranged from Pops (affectionate) and Poops (immature). She had a few close friends, the closest of those being Lily Evans. All in all, nothing spectacular.

Most important of all were Poppy's flaws, of which she had many. We'll get onto those a bit later.

'Poops!'

Poppy's head whipped up from her copy of To Kill A Mockingbird to face her younger sister, Sam, and Poppy felt the small surge of envy she was used to now. Sam was so bloody perfect. She had shoulder length hair the colour of dark chocolate and bright blue eyes. Her lips were a gorgeous shade of pinky red and her angled cheeks were always pleasantly flushed. Poppy rolled her eyes mentally, knowing that her mild jealously was pathetic, pushed her glasses up and smiled.

'Alrigh'?'

Sam grinned. 'Yeah. Have you seen my broom?'

'Well,' Poppy began, frowning, 'Since we live in a muggle populated area within a settlement that also happens to be the eighth largest city by population, I would assume it's in the attic along with mine. Why?'

'Gobshite. Mum's apparating me to Martha's house where I'm spending a couple of nights. She lives in Ottery St Catchpole, we can play Quidditch there. So, is it in the attic?'

Sam persisted.

'Yeah, if you want you can take mine.'

'Really?!' Sam squealed excitedly, before composing herself slightly and asking, 'Why?'

Poppy shrugged. 'Mum's said I can have a new one and I'll be going to London with James in a couple of days, so it's not like I'll be needing it.'

Sam dashed over to hug me. 'Thanks, Pops, you're the best!' She bounded off excitedly and Poppy smiled, returning once more to her book.

* * *

James Potter was getting very restless.

His best mate, Sirius, was staying with his only friendly cousin, Andromeda for a week due to her having just had a child.

Peter Pettigrew and his parents were visiting family friends in Ireland for a week.

Christopher Macdonald, the only member of their dormitory who was not a Marauder, was trekking the Alps with his parents, who were Muggles.

James had very little to do, but it wasn't for this reason that he wrote to Poppy.

He genuinely liked Poppy and wanted to see her before school. They got each other. She hadn't admitted it to him, but he knew of something they had in common: a romantic interest in someone who wasn't interested. It was no secret that James Potter had been in love with Lily Evans. The true secret is that he still was, despite the Hogwarts rumour mill stating otherwise. Lily even seemed to believe he no longer cared for her in that sense, but without mentioning it to her, James knew that Poppy knew. Poppy, on the other hand, had not made her affections blunt. But James knew. Poppy did not know that James knew.

They had first spoken on the third day of school, when the Gryffindor Prefects had asked the new first years their birthdays so they could put them up on 'The Birthday Board'.

'March the 27th.' James Potter had said.

'March the 28th.' Poppy Coogan had said.

As eleven year olds with few friends, this was enough to spark a bond. James had said that he liked her accent and she had said that she liked his hair. They were officially the first co-ed friendship pairing of the Gryffindor first years.

James sighed. Friday had dragged on, but at least he was seeing Poppy today. He had many things he wanted to discuss with her, ranging from Lily Evans (almost always an inevitable topic) and the books she had recommended he read. It was one o'clock. He was meant to be getting to the Coogans's house at two. He sighed again.

They wouldn't mind having him early, would they?

'DAD!' James called down the stairs, getting up to get his bag from the top of his wardrobe, 'GOING TO POPPY'S EARLY!'

'Alright, see you tomorrow. Be safe, James.'

'Will be, will be.' James said quietly, shoving his wand into his bag and running down the stairs two at a time, 'Say bye to Mum for me.'

'Will do. Are you alright to apparate by yourself.'

James nodded. 'I've got my licence, haven't I? See you, Dad.'

And James Potter left.

The street outside was quiet, however there were a few straggling Muggles, perhaps off on a lunch break. Shropshire was never particularly busy - convenient when apparating. He walked down the end of and into a snicket where he liked to apparate from. He thought very clearly of the Coogans's back garden and felt himself twisting and turning uncomfortably as he approached Liverpool. About three seconds passed and he was behind a large shed. James grinned and strode up to the back door.

'Poops!'

James could hear footsteps thundering down the stairs and peeked through the door and smiled as he saw two figures approaching. The first was Dermot, about six feet tall and broad shouldered, a giant in comparison to Poppy, who's hair was flying out behind her. It was just about possible to make out the voices coming from behind the door.

'Derm, have you done Sam's room up for him yet?'

'Not yet...'

'Derm!'

'I'll do it later! Let the poor lad in, he'll want a cuppa or something if he's just apparated!'

'Twat.'

The door swung open and the two siblings greeted their visitor with wide grins.

'James, mate.' Dermot said, giving James a hug which James returned. Considering the two had a year between them and were in different houses, they were relatively friendly.

Poppy hovered behind her younger brother, waiting for the embrace to end excitedly. She had a lot to talk to James about and she felt that the hug lasted a good few minutes longer than the actual two seconds.

'James!' She squealed, wrapping her arms around the bespectacled wizard, who once again returned it fondly. He grinned and the blonde's arms untangled themselves from his middle.

'I'll leave you two to your gossiping. See you tomorrow, Poops. James.' Dermot said, retreating back upstairs.

'Tea?'

'Yes please.'

'Have you got your letter yet?' asked Poppy, straightening out her Bruce Springsteen shirt. James shook his head.

'You?'

Poppy nodded. 'I've been made a prefect!'

'Congrats, bloody swot. Don't let it distract you from Quidditch!' James grinned. Suddenly, he acknowledged a pointed look from Poppy and caught on to a hidden implication. 'Hang on, if you're the seventh year girl prefect, that means...'

'Unless Lily has done something to seriously discredit herself that Dumbledore was made aware of, she's Head Girl.' Poppy finished, beginning to move into the living room.

'Who do you reckon's got Head Boy?' James asked, following Poppy. 'Me and Sirius have got a bet. Three galleons say Moony.'

'Who does he think?'

'Snivellus.'

Poppy snorted. 'Fat chance.'

'That's exactly what I said.' James grinned. 'I meant to ask, there's been a bit of a change of plans. Is it alright if Remus meets us in Camden? He needs a new cauldron and there's a book he wants too.'

'Oh, well yeah, that's fine. More than fine. Remus is great.' She nodded, answering just a tad too quickly. Her slightly speedy answer amused her friend, as it provided yet more evidence for his theory about where Poppy's affections (which she routinely claimed were non-existant) laid.

'He's great, is he?'

'Well, not great. I mean, he's lovely, but perhaps great is a tad extravagant. Well, I don't know. What do you think? You're his best friend though, of course you think he's great.' The witch rambled, not noticing that her slightly rushed responses greatly amused her companion.

You see, Ms. Coogan had rather a soft spot for Mr. Lupin. And despite his dismissal of petty teenage romances, Mr. Potter found it very easy to deduce the interest she had been showing for the past few months. It amused him on a few accounts: Firstly, he remembered distinctly a drunk Poppy approaching him at the end of fifth year, when Gryffindor had just beaten Ravenclaw to win the Quidditch Cup and began on a firewhisky induced rant about how illogical and downright stupid love is. Poppy was most certainly a cynic. Secondly, never would Remus Lupin believe nor accept that anyone felt any feelings towards him aside from friendship, fondness, mild dislike or hate. The thought of one of his close friends fancying him would confuse him and, in a loose sense of the word, shock him. This was not because no girls paid attention to him - it was because he was friends with James and Sirius, who overshadowed him slightly when it came to romance. Lastly, it amused him because he now had something to tease Remus about - not that he'd mention by name who it was who fancied him, of course.

'I think you need to shut your mouth and look at the clock.'

Poppy closed her mouth and looked at the clock.

'Shite!' She exclaimed, frantically returning to the kitchen and leaving James in the living room, 'It's 2:30!'

'Yes, that was certainly what I was getting at.'

'The match starts at 3:00!'

'An accurate statement.'

'Shut your gob you smarmy southern twat.' Poppy grumbled loud enough for James to hear, clattering around the kitchen in the process. 'Sort yourself out for the match, Potter.'

'I have made the conscious decision to take offence at your previous retort, in particular the phrase 'bloody southern twat'.'

You could almost hear Poppy roll her eyes in Australia. 'And why's that?' She called.

'I am literally from about 70 miles south of you, I'm not from pigging Brighton.'

'Sod that! Shrewsbury's southern.'

Finally, Poppy returned from the kitchen (the only difference was her attire, as she now wore a Liverpool shirt and jeans) with virtually no difference.

'Apparate?'

'Apparate.'

* * *

'We are now approaching Wolverhampton. Please mind the doors. Thank you for travelling with London Midland.'

'God, it's not like we had any pigging choice, is it?' James snarled (quietly) at the annoyingly calm train announcer. At the last minute, he had decided after the excitement that was his first proper football match, he wanted to continue with muggle ways of life and travel by train. This had turned out to be a bad idea.

'Well, we did. You were the one who wanted to take the train - '

'That's completely irrelevant. Besides, the woman was assuming we had no other means of transport and if we did, this train would have been our only choice. So we had no choice.'

'I spend most of my time trying to unscrambled what you say, Potter.'

'That's because you're thick as pig shit. Think how I feel, trying to decode your bloody Scouse accent...'

'Thank god we're the only people for a few metres or you'd have middle class mothers saying you're corrupting Miles' young mind.'

'Who's Miles?'

'Hypothetical child.'

'Nice name. God, I can't believe we're only in Wolver-bloody-hampton.'

'James, we could always just get out here and apparate.' Poppy said, holding back laughter at James' exasperation.

'For Merlin's sake, let's do that.' He responded impatiently, standing up abruptly to get his bag off the luggage rack. Poppy smirked and did the same.

When they got on to the platform, James seemed immediately more relaxed. 'I haven't got a clue how muggles can put up with that.'

'Some do it on a regular basis - daily even. They commute to work. My uncle works in London, but he lives just out of Stoke. He has to take the train every day. It's alright for us, though. Dad always made sure we were equipped to deal with things like muggles do, and Mum was always more keen on magic.' Poppy explained cheerfully, fishing for a bottle of water in our bag.

'Your uncle must be a bloody decent man. Do you know any places where we can apparate from?' James asked.

'Mum's from Wolverhampton. There's this pub in the town centre and the back room leads to a smaller pub for the wizarding population. It's only about a five minute walk.'

Those five minutes were spent making general small talk, topics ranging from Quidditch - James and Poppy supported rival teams, (Wimbourne Wasps and Appleby Arrows respectively) and were both certain theirs stood the best chance of finishing highest in the league - to the football match they'd seen the night before.

But they had now moved on to an alternate topic - Lily Evans.

Lily and Poppy had become friends shortly after James and Poppy and had remained firmly close all their time at Hogwarts, apart from a brief fight in their third year. One thing that Lily did not seem to approve about Poppy was her friendship with James. Lily had felt nothing more than indifference towards James for all of her schooling career, whereas James had had a thing for her since their second year, going through a phase in third year through to the start of their fourth year where he routinely asked Lily out every day.

She always said no.

Things were no longer as hostile as they had been three years ago, however James and Lily's relationship could not be described as a calm, easy going one. This was all down to one thing - James had finally gotten over Lily.

At least, that was the impression that Lily was under. And in a similar way to James noticing Poppy's discreet affections for Remus, Poppy could tell that James' getting over Lily was complete and utter bullshit.

'So I'm a tad confused. Is pretending not to fancy Lily part of a master plan to get her to fall in love with you?'

'I honestly haven't a clue.' James said bluntly, following Poppy into a derelict pub with boarded up windows. 'Pops, I don't even think it's open...'

'It is. Stop changing the subject.' Poppy said dismissively, opening a door that creaked slightly more than it should when opened. 'Do they know?'

'Do who know?'

'Peter. Sirius. Remus.'

'Naturally.'

Despite the run down appearance of the pub outside and the muggle section that the two friends had to pass through to get to where they could apparate from, the wizard section of the pub was lively and reeked of butterbeer. Poppy choked.

'Lightweight.' James teased.

'Bellend.'

'As ever.'

'Let's go separately, meet at - '

'Camden Lock Bridge. That's where Remus is.'

'Right. See you in - '

'Approximately ten seconds.'

* * *

'The thing is, right, that Poops here didn't explain to me that goalkeepers can hold the ball, only that everyone shouts 'handball!' when a player touches the ball. So the Newcastle keeper picks up the ball and, of course, I shout 'handball!'.' James paused for a second to glance at Poppy, who's face was recreating the embarrassment it had shown when the incident originally happened, 'And this man, obviously a bit jolly, shouts 'That's the point of a goalkeeper, son!''

From here, Poppy continued the reenactment of 'James Potter goes to Anfield'. 'And you could tell James was about to say something stupid - ' some protests came from the afore mentioned boy's being, 'surprise surprise. So I kick him and he says something along the lines of 'More of a rugby fan myself, mate.' To redeem himself in some way.'

Remus groaned. 'Prongs, I've been to one football match in my entire laugh and couldn't tell you more than three teams but even I know that that's a stupid move. Rugby and football fans are pretty opinionated on which one is the best.'

'Never bloody mentioned that in Muggle Studies, did they? I just thought all Muggles loved sports equally.' grumbled James, clearly annoyed at being shown up on his lack of knowledge of football.

'Anyway,' Poppy continued, 'At least 50 people booed him and he sulked until I got him a beer and a pork pie.'

'Such cupboard love.' tutted Remus, grinning.

'So, Moony,' James said, kicking a large stone into the gutter, 'What have you been getting up to since I saw you last?'

Remus rolled his eyes. 'Not much. I saw Peter a week or so ago, and Marlene and I went to Diagon Alley a few days ago. But not much. Mum's poorly.'

James threw a discreet glance at Poppy to see if she had reacted at all to Remus' meeting up with Marlene, but her face remained unchanged. She did, however, notice the glance and gave a stern look, causing James to smirk back at her. She rolled her eyes and terminated the exchanging of body language.

'Oh bloody hell, it's Dominic Davies. I best go and say hello - be back in a minute.'

Remus dashed off to a short, bony boy who, if Poppy remembered correctly, was a Hufflepuff in their year. She smiled. Remus seemed to get along with everyone.

'Jealous.'

Poppy's thoughts about Remus' kindness were interrupted by the teasing comment from her remaining companion. She once again rolled her eyes and turned to face him.

'I'm not.'

'You really are.'

'I'm really not.'

'You're so jealous you don't even know it.'

'I'm no - wait, no. I'm fairly sure that you don't reach a level of jealousness and suddenly become completely unaware of it and chose not to acknowledge it.' countered Poppy, slightly aggravated.

'Well, flower,' James responded, 'I wouldn't know, would I? I've never quite reached that level of jealousy.'

Poppy snorted. 'That's goblin shite. There was the time you saw Lily snogging Archie and I had to take the hex so you wouldn't interrupt them.'

'Yet I was aware I was jealous, therefore I was not as jealous as you are now.'

'That's ridiculous.' Poppy scoffed, 'I have no reason to be jealous of Marlene. She's one of my best friends, and it's not like they shagged or anything.'

'Doesn't mean you aren't jealous.' James said in an irritating sing songy voice.

'Shut it, Potter. You're meant to be one of my best friends, don't be mean to me.' sulked Poppy.

James gave an ostentatious gasp. 'One of your best friends? Poppy, you have never referred to me as that. I can't believe it - Miss I Hate Everyone And Refuse To Even Attempt To Make Friends has cracked. Honestly, I feel overwhelmingly flattered...'

Inwardly, Poppy stung slightly. James' words were teasing and not meant badly, however they were truthful. Perhaps not her hating everyone, but it was not unacknowledged that Poppy did not go out of her way to meet new people or make friends. She knew she should, but she was cynical. To Poppy, all friendships end eventually. In a typical Poppy manner of hiding as much emotion as possible, she brushed off the comment as quickly as it had come and responded.

'Bloody hell, James, where has all this boyish teasing come from?'

He smiled. 'I've not been at school and have had no way to output my mischief and cheek, and seeing as you are clearly soaking it all up - ' Poppy gave a disgruntled snort, 'I've found it's been most pleasing to output it all on to you.'

At this point, Remus rejoined the duo, somewhat confused as to why Poppy looked slightly miffed and James looked like he'd just whacked a particularly noisy bluebottle fly with a newspaper. When Remus spoke, his confusion came through clearly and distinctly.

'Have I missed something?'

'Not at all,' Poppy responded coolly, 'I was just commenting on your friend's alarming level of immaturity. We may want to have it looked into.' This time it was James' turn to give a responsive snort.

'Actually, I'd argue that our main topic of conversation was our Poppy. You see, Remus, I have found that Poops here is a terribly jealous human being - truly a negative trait, wouldn't you say?' He countered, smirking across at Poppy, who was trying to convey a look of 'honestly-James-if-you-breath-another-word'.

'Truly, however I'm going to assume that you're twisting the truth and side with Pops.' Remus said briskly. 'Right. Drink?'

'Drink.' Poppy and James agreed, glancing at each other and following Remus into a nearby pub.

* * *

**Thank you so much if you've read this far! Also, apologies for any mistakes as it is currently 1:15 in the morning so my attempts to proof read may have been completely diabolical. Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll get the second chapter out soon.**

**Love Martha x**


	2. A Bit Of A Palaver

**Think this chapter is a bit longer. Enjoy x**

* * *

Platform 9 and 3/4, Poppy thought, was one of the most hectic places she had ever set foot in.

It was so many different types of hectic happening all at once within a confined area of space and time. You could have someone who'd lost their owl or a fifth year who'd misplaced their first year sibling, and parents hurrying to check that their child had everything and that they were absolutely sure they did. On top of this, you had friends who hadn't seen each other for two months finally reuniting and chatting enthusiastically about the previous summer holidays and the upcoming school term. There were, of course, the odd exceptions. Onlookers isn't quite the right phrase - that's more the parents. Poppy was one of the Not Quite Onlookers. She watched amused as nervous first years formed friendships that would follow them through school, and couples had their first argument of the school year and enjoyed it all thoroughly. Sam and Dermot had long since disappeared, joining their own friends and her trunk was safely on the train with Cuthbert. This was fine - Poppy was never much one for joining in with Platform Pleasantries (as she liked to call them), but she enjoyed watching them nonetheless.

Unfortunately for Poppy, Platform Pleasantries could not be avoided when it came to her friends.

'COOGAN!'

Anywhere else, this would have been completely out of place and loud, but it was only just in ear shot due to everyone else on the platform talking to or calling for someone. The pale arms of Lily Evans wrapped themselves around the back of Poppy's neck and she rolled her eyes.

'Get off me, muppet.' She said affectionately, gently unhooking the arms from around her neck and turning around to face her friend. Lily grinned excitedly and grabbed Poppy's hand.

'We've been looking for you! The others can't wait to see you.' She said happily, still leading Poppy to the other side of the platform.

'Christ, Lily, I'm not sure how I feel about the enthusiasm.' smirked Poppy, raising an eyebrow at her.

'Ah, shut it. We're going back. I'm allowed to be enthusiastic.'

'Is that a trait commonly found in Head Girls?'

'No, but according to scientists, approximately 100% of those who go by the name Poppy Elizabeth Coogan and are from Liverpool are miserable arseholes.' Lily replied, not missing a beat.

'Merlin, what a coincidence! That's my name! _And_ I'm from Liverpool!' Poppy faked surprise. Lily laughed and sped up, having just spotted the remainder of the seventh year Gryffindor girls.

Even the mildly surly Poppy could not resist breaking into a wide grin at the sight of her friends, who were all mirroring her expression. Apart from Poppy and Lily, there were four other girls in their dormitory, and Poppy was struck (as she was every time she saw them together on the platform before a new school year) at how different they all were.

There was Mary Littleton, a quiet and sweet girl from Edinburgh, born to a wizard father and a muggle mother. She was gentle and honest and well liked throughout the year due to her open-mindedness and honesty. Standing next to her (with her trade mark smirk plastered across her face) was Marlene McKinnon. Marlene was blunt, straightforward and (most of the time) very kind hearted. She was short with jaw length blonde hair which always looked just a tad unkept. Alice England leaned nonchalantly against a barrier, smiling excitedly. It was rare for someone to be as popular as Alice. She was bubbly and easy going and her magnificently clashing black hair and rosy cheeks made her always appear very happy. Lastly, there was Eleanor Brambles, who had fantastic curly dark hair that complemented her dark skin perfectly. She was truly beautiful, and not unkind in the slightest. Poppy often thought how lucky she'd been to be put in with a group of such genuine, decent girls. She couldn't have dealt with any other house really - Hufflepuffs are meant to be lovely, but Nicole Smith was a tarty bitch and that made her glad she wasn't put in that house. The Ravenclaws were alright, but most of the Slytherins weren't.

'Pops, stop grinning like the Cheshire Cat and give at least _one_ of us a hug, for God's sake.' Marlene grinned, putting on a fake tone of exasperation.

'You don't get so much as a handshake with that attitude, McKinnon.' Poppy retorted, going over to embrace Mary.

'Honestly, Marls, you should know better than to be cheeky in front of the Head Girl and a Prefect.' Eleanor said teasingly, winking at the others.

'You won't give us detentions, will you?' Alice chirped.

'I won't.' Poppy shrugged, 'I'm all for a bit of bias and favouritism...'

Lily threw Poppy a stern look.

'...but after the look Lily gave me I'm having a second thoughts.' She finished hesitantly. They all giggled.

'Oi Lils, it's your hunky boyfriend.' Marlene said, wiggling her eyebrows as suggestively as wiggling eyebrows can get, flitting her irises from Lily to the approaching figure of Archie Rourbaite, Lily's boyfriend of a month. The red head rolled her eyes but blushed anyway as her friends craned their necks to get a good look at him. Poppy sighed. Archie was a massive twat.

'I'm aware this is a tad out of character for me, but I would demolish him.' Mary whispered. Everyone but Lily burst into laughter and Alice even clapped a bit. Poppy smirked. Still a twat. Lily having pulled Archie was a great source of amusement to her. Within a few seconds, Lily was standing next to Archie and just a few after that they were kissing. It was all very sweet. Except Archie was the biggest twat ever, and not in the 'oh god he's a horrible person way'. More in the 'oh god he has the personalty of a damp tea cloth' way.

And then James Potter appeared.

Poppy struggled to describe the look on James' face - first and foremost, he was upset. But he was jealous and envious, hurt and helpless, shocked and angry. Somehow, he managed to return to his normal expression shortly after witnessing the girl that he loved (not that he'd admit he loved her) kissing another person. If there was one thing you could say about James Potter, it was that he was proud. He would not let anyone think he still in love with Lily after all the effort he had gone to to convince everyone he wasn't. A few years ago, James would have been visibly furious and attempted to break up the kiss (probably by performing some sort of prank on Lily or nearby) but he was long past this now - most could tell. There was one emotion Poppy had missed, and it was arguably the most important one: despair. She thought she knew everything about the situation, but the truth is she hadn't read the situation very well at all. Anyone could assume James' jealousy or anger, but it was another to see the emotion that was most obvious yet most well hidden. James Potter had finally given up. Or at least that's what he thought at that moment in time.

The only person who had seemed to notice James' despair was Sirius standing next to him, who was doing the correct thing in moving James away from it. Sirius gave an understanding smile at her which she returned (better than a genuine smile - Poppy disliked her smile).As James turned away, Poppy saw something - something she barely had time to register.

Two glistening gold badges.

The first she had been expecting, as James had been Quidditch Captain for two years now and the badge to prove this had been a commonplace item on his robes for the previous two years. Then, hidden slightly above the Captain's badge was another, the badge of the Head Boy. She knew it must be, as Remus was the male prefect. She sighed quietly. Lily would be in for a shock when they had the first prefect meeting on the train.

'Want to get a carriage, Pops?' Alice asked from behind Poppy. Poppy nodded and the two made their way onto the train as the clock went five to eleven. Poppy liked Alice - which shouldn't really be a surprise, but Poppy couldn't truthfully say she likes a great amount of people. Anyway, it was borderline impossible not to like Alice. One thing Poppy really admired about Alice was her determination: Alice has decided at the age of twelve she was going to be an auror and hadn't changed her mind since. Poppy, on the other hand, had gone as far as considering working as a muggle journalist. Luckily her mother had pointed out that it was a privilege to have had an education in magic as she had and to then waste it, so Poppy had changed her mind; being a wizard journalist would do nicely.

'How's Frank?' Poppy asked as way of small talk, knowing Frank Longbottom was a topic which Alice flourished in. Indeed, her eyes lit up slightly and her hands became a lot more energetic as she described their trip to Edinburgh and a garden party she attended at Frank's house and how lovely his family were. Alice was so into the (rather one-sided) conversation that she barely noticed when Poppy followed Mary, Eleanor and Marlene into a carriage. In fact, she had to get out quickly and shake her shoulder.

'Sorry.' Alice squirmed, sitting down next to Eleanor, who grinned affectionately.

'Can we join you?' The voice of Christopher Macdonald terminated those of the five females in the carriage and they looked up at him. Mary and Poppy peered around to see who 'we' was and Poppy blushed slightly to see Remus was there and then compulsively wanted to kick herself. Blushing is the most idiotic thing ever. She fished out her book and glasses from her satchel and tried to position it so it covered her face and also looked like a natural reading position.

'Course.' Marlene replied, shuffling down to make space for the new arrivals. Christopher sat next to Mary and Remus next to him, also next to Marlene.

'Sirius, Frank and Peter'll be along in a few minutes so the peace will be shattered.' Christopher informed the group.

'There's hardly any room left now, someone'll have to sit on the floor.' Eleanor pointed out, the others nodding.

'And that's without five.' said Mary.

'Five?' Remus asked.

'Yeah,' Poppy realised, 'No James or Lily.'

'Where are they?' Alice wondered out loud.

'Isn't Lily with Archie?' Marlene said, ripping a piece of fluff off of her jacket.

'Is she? James just said he had something to do.' Remus said nonchalantly, as if he knew exactly what it was that James had to do. Which, Poppy realised, he probably did.

Seconds after this realisation, the peace, as Christopher so accurately put it, was shattered. Poppy looked at the three boys with interest, as she hadn't seen them for two months - she did not dislike them, however she was hardly the best of friends with any of the three. Slightly in front of the other two was Frank Longbottom, with light hair and dark eyes, an interesting contrast. He was not ridiculously attractive, nor was he unattractive. Out of the three, Poppy was probably closest with Frank - he was kind and didn't have an immature sense of humour. Behind him was Sirius Black, with his almost infamous dark locks, muscular build and sharp features, there was no denying his good looks. In Poppy's case, there was no acknowledging them either. He'd never been anything but decent to her, but Poppy had a theory that anyone that good looking must be a but of a knob. Slightly to the side of Sirius was Peter, noticeably smaller and less defined. His hair was a sandy blonde colour and his eyes a watery grey. Much like the other two, Peter had never done anything to offend her - in fact, she thought he was quite sweet in a strange way. She just didn't know him a great deal.

'Good holidays?'

'Christ almighty, Black, you gave me the fright of my life.'

'Frank, mate!'

'Chris!'

'Pete, where've you been?'

'Stuck with Pads, who decided we should go for a drink in the Leaky Cauldron at half bloody ten in the morning.'

'Ha, Pads.'

'Marlene.'

'What? I'm entitled to laugh when someone has been given the nickname Pads. I'm a female, it's funny.'

'Bloody hell, you lot make too much noise.' Poppy grumbled.

'Christ, who gave the Grim Reaper a Hogwarts letter?' Eleanor asked, grinning. The others laughed and Poppy stuck her tongue out at her.

'Everyone silent for Princess Poppy please.' Remus said, clapping his hands together and looking somewhat like a butler. Poppy smirked.

'That's better.'

'Glad you're settled. Come on, Poppy, we've got the meeting.' Remus told her. She looked at him questioningly.

'Meeting?'

'You know, the thing that prefects go to on the train?'

'Oh right, that.'

Remus left the compartment (his seat quickly taken by Frank, who had been sitting on the floor) and Poppy followed him outside of the compartments. She almost knocked over a Hufflepuff couple, who had decided the ideal place to snog was right outside the door to a compartment.

'Where is it?'

'Right at the end of the train.' Remus replied.

'Good, I can stretch my legs.'

Remus smiled. 'Did you notice?'

'Notice...?'

'Notice James.'

'Oh.' Yes. 'Yeah, he's Head Boy, isn't he?'

'He is. I think he's go mixed emotions. Did you tell Lily?'

'In all fairness, I barely had a chance. She was off snogging Archie within three minutes of me seeing her.'

'Oh. You probably should have told her.' Remus said, pulling out a packet of Love Hearts (Poppy's favourite muggle sweets) and offering her one. She took it.

'Think she'll be cross?'

'Knowing Lily, probably.'

'Oh dear. Maybe I can tell her before - '

Remus was unable to discover when Poppy could tell her, as she was interrupted by a highly audible exclamation from a compartment just in front of them.

'You're Head Boy?!'

it seemed Lily had just made a discovery.

Remus and Poppy looked at each other nervously.

'Well, um...'

'What does your Love Heart say?' Remus asked awkwardly, as if to delay entering what was apparently the compartment in which the meeting was taking place.

'Oh, er...' Poppy looked at it and then cringed, 'Meant To Be.'

'I hope it's referring to you and me, not them. Merlin, I could not manage it if those two got married.' He sighed, clearly not realising that the World Gymnastics Championships were taking place in her stomach as he said that. She nodded, trying to take the comment as he'd clearly intended it. She struggled.

The door of the compartment slid open and there stood Lily, looking surprisingly calm considering she had just found out that James Potter, who it was well know she didn't like, was Head Boy. Remus and Poppy both offered apologetic smiles at her (neither really meant them) and she ushered them into the compartment.

* * *

'Pops?'

Eventually, the prefect meeting (which James and Lily had done surprisingly well in) disbanded, and Remus and Poppy had decided they both quite fancied a Pumpkin Pasty. It seemed Lily had other ideas.

'Everything alright, Lily?' Poppy asked, stopping. Remus, noticing Poppy was not next to him anymore, stopped too.

'Erm, sort of. Can I talk to you?' She asked nervously, biting her bottom lip.

'Oh, um, yeah, of course. Remus, if I give you the money can you get me the pasty?' Poppy asked, pulling an apologetic face at Remus. He nodded and took the money, heading off to find the trolley.

'Did you know James was Head Boy?'

Remus bloody said this would happen. Why didn't it occur to her sooner this was what Lily wanted to talk about? Poppy grimaced.

'Kind of.'

'Kind of?'

'Yeah,' Poppy began reluctantly, 'You're going to be in a barny with me afterwards, aren't you?'

'There's a chance.'

Poppy smiled weakly. 'Fair enough. When you were snogging Archie -'

'We weren't snogging...'

'When you were snogging Archie,' Poppy continued, 'I saw James with Sirius,' It was probably best to leave out that he looked just a tad upset, 'I saw he had two badges. Quidditch Captain - '

'- and Head Boy.' Lily finished.

'And Head Boy.' Poppy confirmed. 'But I couldn't tell you, you were snogging Archie, and then Alice dragged me off. Sorry.'

'Did you think about telling me?'

'Not until Remus mentioned it. Are you annoyed?'

'I'd like to be,' Lily admitted, 'But I'm not really. I suppose you didn't really want to be the one to tell me.'

'An accurate assumption.'

'Fair enough. I told Archie I'd go and see him for a bit after the meeting, so see you in around half and hour.' The two friends parted, and Poppy was rather hoping for a peaceful journey back to her friends. It appeared, however, James Potter did not share this aspiration, as he too stopped Poppy about half a minute later.

'Can I talk to you?' He said, almost sternly. Poppy smiled tiredly.

'Yep, of course.' In all honesty, she was a lot more interested in returning to her book and the Pumpkin Pasty Remus had hopefully got for her by now, but she could hardly tell this to James.

'Did you know about Lily and Archie?' He asked, his brow furrowed. Poppy nodded.

'Yeah, of course.'

This apparently was not the answer James was hoping to hear, as he scowled. 'Why didn't you mention it to me?'

Poppy shrugged, 'I didn't really think it was any of your business. You have been saying how you're over Lily and that.'

'But I've told you I'm not!'

'Oh for Merlin's sake, James.' Poppy sighed, exasperated, 'You told me you weren't going to be one of those soppy love sick boys pining after a girl who doesn't fancy you!'

'I'm not pining after a girl who doesn't fancy me!'

'James, mate, I don't want to have an arguement. But you really are at the moment and the girl doesn't fancy you. You need to give yourself a kick up the backside and make a better attempt to move on.' Poppy insisted.

'I don't see you trying to move on from Remus!' He retorted. Poppy frowned and glanced around to make sure no one had heard.

'But I haven't been doting on Remus since I was in second year, and as far as I am aware he doesn't hate me. You can't expect me to come running to you to tell you everything Lily does, she's my friend and if she tells me not to tell anyone anything, I won't. You wouldn't do that to Sirius, would you? Now, you'll probably be in a strop with me for the next day or so but you'll hopefully realise that what I've said is fairly accurate, alright?' Poppy finished, folding her arms.

'You're probably right, but I'm still cross. You can be a right bitch sometimes, Poppy.' James replied sullenly, still relatively just even when angry. Poppy nodded, agreeing.

'It's one of an abundance of flaws I have.' She admitted, 'But where would you be without it?' This, in hindsight, was probably an exaggeration - James Potter would still be alive and well without Poppy. 'Think about it, kidda, and come back to talk to me when you're ready to continue.'

It was completely true, Poppy admitted to herself, she was a complete bitch sometimes. It was no wonder she wasn't as popular as any of her friends. True, her bitchy fits were not common, however they occurred. Marlene had never had a spoken about bitch fit. Sometimes, Poppy wondered how she put up with herself, let alone how others put up with her. Her New Year's Resolution would definitely be Don't Be A Bitch.

In all fairness, James could be a right git sometimes, though. Honestly, he just needs to get himself a bird.

Poppy's friend's compartment was now even more lively than it had been when she left it approximately an hour before (how time flies) but had seemingly gained no more people. She said her greetings, and then sat down and pulled out her book, somehow managing to drown out the buzz of her friends's conversations and read.

* * *

Merlin, Poppy thought as she yawned, her eyes heavy and her head shaking slightly with the movement of the carriage, How long had she been asleep for? She could 't really be sure when she'd fallen asleep, but her finger was propping open a page in her book. Fallen asleep reading - a common situation. She opened her eyes drowsily to find that everyone had left the carriage, except Sirius. Peculiar.

'Afternoon.' He said cheerfully, not looking up from his book (which was 1984, so was presumably Poppy's book. She rather hoped he'd finish it soon - she wanted it back).

'Yeah, afternoon.' She agreed tiredly, stretching up to the luggage rack. 'Where's everyone gone?'

'Went to the trolley.'

'What, all of them?'

'Yeah.'

'And you didn't go?'

Sirius shrugged and closed his book, apparently sensing that a conversation was about to begin. 'I wasn't hungry.'

'Oh.'

'This is all a bit of a palaver, isn't it?' He said, looking out the window.

'What is?'

'James and Lily. Of course, I love them both - but I wish they'd just get it over with and shag.'

This, Poppy thought, was a rather blunt way of putting it.

'I thought you were going to say something about how our world is slowly being corrupted and taken over by an evil wizard, but yeah. Archie's a twat.'

'A twat?' He asked,

'A twat.' She confirmed.

Poppy made to go back to sleep.

'You have pretty eyes, Poppy.'

She opened one of them.

'They've been closed for the last... how long was I asleep?'

'45 minutes.'

'Closed for the last 45 minutes.' She finished, now looking at Sirius skeptically. He didn't appear to be joking.

'Acutely observed, but I have known you for the last six years - I've had plenty of time to look at your eyes. And when someone compliments you, you can just say thank you and give them a compliment back. That's the civilised thing to do.' He replied, almost teasingly. Poppy cocked an eyebrow slightly, still not completely sure if he was being genuine. They talked anything from once to thrice a day - it seemed very spontaneous for him to suddenly compliment her eyes (eyes which Poppy felt were rather dull). Regardless, she decided to play along.

'Thank you. Your hair is rather dashing.' Everything about her tone suggested that this was quite the contrary to her actual opinion.

'Thank you. You look sweet when you're asleep.'

Poppy frowned. 'No, wait, hang on. I didn't realise it was ongoing, I'm not playing a game of compliment tennis.'

'Tennis?'

'Muggle sport.'

'Oh, I see,' There was a pregnant pause. 'You can go back to sleep now.'

The witch gave a scoff, 'Thanks for the permission, but now I'm intrigued.'

'Intrigued?' Sirius asked, lifting his feet onto the seat.

'Oh yes. You've suddenly decided I have pretty eyes?'

'I decided a while ago, I only just decided to voice my opinion. It's quite amusing how much my complimenting you seems to have bothered you. And I haven't even mentioned yet that I think your ears are peculiar.'

Poppy elected to ignore the last sentence. 'Why?'

'Because we're in an intimate situation, sweetheart.'

Poppy almost retched. 'I'd hardly call this intimate.'

'Would you not?'

'Well, no, because firstly - '

But Sirius was deprived of hearing Poppy's complete answer, as at this point their friends reentered, armed with Chocolate Frogs and a few packets of Droobles, and Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans were being pelted at the two of them by Christopher and Mary, both grinning wildly.

'God, what a waste!' cried Sirius, catching a bean that was hurtling towards his face and promptly eating it, before spitting it back out again in disgust.

'Snot.' Christopher declared, still grinning, 'We picked all the bad ones out to throw at you.'

'I feel strangely flattered that you went to all that effort.' Poppy said, smiling, 'Where are the others?'

Mary leaned slightly out of the compartment to check. 'They're coming. Unfortunately none of them are nearly as witty as Chris and me - they're saving the beans for themselves.'

'Selfish gits.' Christopher concluded, chucking a clear bean at Poppy (possibly earwax?) which she threw out if the compartment, straight into the unsuspecting face of James, who was the unlucky sod entering the compartment at that very moment, looking like a cat who'd just been stroked backwards.

'Who...?' He began hesitantly, eyeing the two people furthest into the compartment knowing full well it could really have been either one of them, either his best friend or one of his closest friends friends. Sirius and Poppy spoke at the same time.

'Poppy.'

'Sirius.'

'Merlin, it doesn't matter. It's just a bean. Lily told me to come and tell you that we're ten minutes away.' James said, sliding his foot across the carpet back and forth.

'I'm changed.' Christopher shrugged.

'As am I.' Mary smiled, signalling to her robes.

'Me too.' Poppy added.

'Well I'm not.' Sirius said bluntly, reaching for a bag on the rail above the seats. 'So you can all leave. Unless you'd want to stay, Poppy?' He finished innocently, batting his eyelashes. She rolled her eyes.

'A charming offer, but I want to go check on our Sam.'

'Our Sam.' Mimicked the other four in a voice about as far away from Poppy's as you could get, to which she poked her tongue out.

'Let's leave his royal highness to get changed, then.' Christopher said cheerfully, beginning the leaving from the compartment, from which there were calls of, 'You're all frigid!' from Sirius escaping out.

* * *

'You'd think,' Marlene began, taking a small bite out of a chicken drumstick, 'the excitement of the first feast would wear off after the third year.'

'I spend most of the year convincing myself not to stuff myself on the first night back, and then I just sort of... go.' Poppy agreed, helping herself to a Cornish pasty.

Somehow, Marlene and Poppy had ended up sitting about five seats down from the rest of their friends (they had taken another carriage) so it was really just the two of them talking to each other.

'I'm almost done. You?'

'Almost.' Poppy replied, 'I want to get up early as I want to go for a run tomorrow morning and I can feel my makeup leaving my face.'

'Me too,' Marlene admitted, 'It's only a matter of minutes until my true appearance is revealed.'

'People will be shocked.'

'Truly.'

'Done?'

'Yeah.'

The two girls stood up from the table and began to leave (pausing only to say goodnight to their friends - although they'd see the females in a few minutes - and explain they were going up). Overall, the feast had been fairly pleasant - Snape had attempted to converse with Lily after she got off the carriage, but she very quickly made it clear she was not interested in anyway (at least, according to Eleanor).

'Was it me, or was that one of the more strangely hectic train rides of the lot?' Marlene asked, yawning slightly and stretching. Poppy nodded.

'Merlin, yes.' Poppy sighed, 'Myself and Remus had to deal with the rather hostile atmosphere in the prefect meeting, what with no one having told Lily that James was Head Boy and no one having told James that Lily was with Archie.'

'I pity you, honestly. Lily's bitching about him will be borderline intolerable. Speaking of Remus, did I show you what he got for me from Greece?' Marlene asked eagerly. Poppy felt a pang of jealousy (which she tried to ignore).

'Oh? What did he get?' She questioned casually, trying to pretend that she was not just a bit jealous that he hadn't gotten her anything and that this didn't mean for certain that he liked Marlene more than her. Merlin, she'd only ever had a crush on one of her neighbours in Year 5 - this made her feel pathetic.

'This bracelet.' Marlene said happily, showing Poppy her wrist. It was a black, plaited band with a small, round, silver charm in the middle, made to look like it was made of water. It was very beautiful, and also very Marlene, as it was very pretty in a simple, unflamboyant way.

'That's gorgeous.' Poppy replied, truthfully, holding Marlene's wrist to get a better look.

'Isn't it? Anyway, what did Sirius get you?' She asked nonchalantly. Poppy looked at her, perplexed.

'Sirius?'

'Yes, Sirius Black.' She repeated.

'Nothing...'

'That's funny. He was telling us how pretty your eyes are. I thought he might have a thing for you and might have got you something.' Marlene said. Poppy shook her head and laughed.

'God no. But he told me that too. I think he's just trying to wind me up, tease me because it would be laughable for him to think that the hard working, sort of introverted, book obsessed girl fancied him.' She answered, releasing her thoughts from earlier that day.

'I wouldn't say you're obsessed with books...' Marlene said, grinning.

'Marlene love, to put it in statistics, I read a book every two days over the summer.' Poppy responded, smirking.

'I take it back.'

* * *

**I'm not sure about this chapter, but I suppose it'll do. Also, do you think Poppy is a Mary Sue? I don't really think so, but I could be disillusioned. Thoughts?**

**Reviewers get virtual cake, so do favouriters.**

**Martha x**


	3. The Acquiring of a Follower

**I'd like to make a quick apology - I was reading about how the Prefect/Head Girl/Head Boy system works the other day and according the the page, the Head Girl and Boy are (if they were prefects beforehand) not replaced after getting Head Girl/Boy. So basically, Poppy would not have replaced Lily. But for the sake of the story, she has. Sorry if this bothers anyone.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter lovelies.**

* * *

The first week of school (which was in fact only two days, as lessons began on Thursday) went by relatively quickly, however the seventh years unanimously agreed they had more work than the first three years put together. The Gryffindor Common room was bubbling with phrases such as 'Four rolls of parchment for Herbology? Ha, that's fine. We got six for Transfiguration. McGonagall's off her rocker, I'm telling you.' and, 'I saw James Potter doing homework on the day it was set. I know!'. Poppy had had to have a serious talk with her conscience about whether she could manage the work, Quidditch and being a prefect, along with working on trying not to be a bitch.

The first day of lessons was very normal. The lesson Poppy had first was Charms, which was always pleasant. She was sat next to Eleanor - also a good thing. At this point in the day she took a moment to realise how good a day it had been so far - she'd had a nice run, a particularly large spot had disappeared from her face, she found a nice bra she thought she had lost, the toast was perfect at breakfast, Remus had said her hair looked nice (she had made a bit of an effort) and now she had Charms first thing, sitting next to one of her friends. The day continued in a delightfully unextraordinary manner, and things only seemed to get better. She was sat by Remus in Ancient Runes and in front of James in Transfiguration (which was useful as he was very good at Transfiguration). He had not attempted to talk to her yet, but it was only a matter of time. As a final pleasantry of the day, Lily fished out an expensive mascara she had bought for Poppy in London as a gift, with Poppy giving her a jumper Lily had been admiring in a catalogue when Lily had come over during the summer. Lily was greatly amused, as she claimed that Sirius had 'followed' Poppy into the library - Poppy was mildly irritated.

It really should have been a sign that if (besides the excessive amount of homework) the first day of school had gone so well, the second was going to be diabolical.

The morning started at roughly 5:52am - Poppy was an early riser - when she woke up after a bad dream, which she couldn't completely recall other than it had been bad. She quietly got changed and discovered that some wine she'd had in her trunk (for emotional emergencies, because muggle alcohol was better for emotional emergencies) had leaked in to her second pair of trainers. The run itself was pleasant enough, however when she returned at around 6:23am for a shower, Poppy realised instantaneously it was not a good day when she saw her reflection after her shower.

The conventional term for what Poppy was aware she was about to have is a 'bad hair day', but really it's a lot worse than that. In exchange for the spot that had so kindly evacuated her face the previous day, Poppy had three more - one where the edge of her nose met her cheek, one slightly to the left in between her eyebrows and the last one was a particularly bulbous one on her chin. So this was a bad skin day. In addition, her hair was clearly not going to behave at all that day. On days like this, she also became aware of how depressingly average she was - her chest resembled that of a reasonably developed eleven year old, her smile seemed ridiculously wonky, her ears pointed out at a stupid angle and her nose went on for far too long. She tied her hair in a high ponytail - even then it came to her a few inches above her waist - and applied her makeup. Neither looked as she wanted them too, and this set her in a bad mood.

At breakfast, her friends seemed to notice her discontent.

'You alright, Pops?' Alice asked cautiously, laying her porridge next to Poppy's (overdone) toast and sitting down. Poppy grunted.

'Face.'

'Ah.'

Alice, along with the other residents of Poppy's dormitory, were used to Poppy's 'Slightly More Than Bad Hair Days', as they happened about once every three weeks and she was never very happy when they did. Whenever asked what was wrong, the reply would be the same - 'Face.'. When Lily entered, Alice mouthed, 'Face.' quietly and Lily nodded understandingly, positioning herself across from Poppy.

'Alright, Pops?'

'Face.'

'You look lovely.'

'Don't.'

It would be lovely to say that in truth Poppy looked radiant and delightful, but she did look a mess and Lily and Alice both privately knew this, but were both far too kind to say so. In fact, it was a great testament to all of those who'd had to deal with Poppy on a day like that that they didn't just shout, 'You're right, you look bloody awful!'. They didn't know it, but Poppy appreciated this greatly.

Things, however, were no better when the boys walked in, as they were not as equipped to deal with Poppy in this manner. Remus had once encountered Poppy in this mind set in their third year and has been very unsure of how to react. Sirius had been fortunate enough to avoid that situation, and as a consequence made the juvenile error of bringing it up before Poppy did.

'Merlin, Poppy, you look like Mandrakes just chased you through a bush of poison ivy after you a sleepless night.' He said cheerfully, sitting down opposite her.

Lily and Alice, now joined by Mary, Marlene and Eleanor, inhaled sharply. Poppy looked up and graced him with a simple scowl. Her friends exhaled.

'My face isn't behaving.' She explained. He laughed.

'I pity you. Never get that problem, me.'

Poppy, to the surprise of her friends, smirked.

'Some of us have it all.' She stood up and brushed some crumbs off her robes. 'I've got Arithmancy first, and that's a long way from here. I'm going to go now. Anyone coming?' She asked, fairly pleasantly. Lily glanced sideways at Mary warily who shrugged, and got up to follow her friend.

'You were just civil. On a face day. To Sirius Black.'

'I admire your observation skills.'

'Quiet, Penelope.'

Probably the strangest thing about Poppy was that her full name was Penelope. This would mean her logical nickname would be Penny, however when Sam was born she could only say 'Poppy', not 'Penelope' or 'Penny'. The name stuck, and from then on, everyone called Poppy Poppy.

'I'm trying to be nicer. And Black's been decent to me since we got back, so I'll be decent back.' Poppy explained briefly, checking she had her glasses in her bag.

'Right. Is that going well?'

'Frighteningly so.'

The day passed slowly, and Poppy was partnered with Nicole Smith in Potions and a sat by Ravenclaw called Henry in Arithmancy, her favourite subject.

Saturday came around, and once again it was an early rise for Poppy, as she headed out for a run. There were normally one or two others out, but today it seemed she was the only one. She was intending to crack off her Arithmancy homework and go to the library to get a book for her Herbology and Potions and work, then write some letters and hopefully do a bit more work and maybe even go for a fly before her patrol with Remus. On days when she was particularly busy, she wrote down everything she was going to do and at what time. Today was quiet.

Despite being as fantastically organised as she was, she could never quite remember when or why she started running. Perhaps too fill the time before everyone woke up. One of Sam's issues of Witch Weekly said it helped your skin, too.

She turned a sharp corner.

'Merlin!'

Poppy had to stop very suddenly as she turned the corner, almost slamming right into someone. She looked up, and saw Sirius, with a wide grin plastered across his face, looking as though he has deliberately positioned himself there.

'Not quite, it's just me.'

She rolled her eyes, breathing loudly from physical exertion. 'Aren't you a bit young for dad jokes, Black?'

'Probably,' He grinned, 'Won't stop me, though. How are you?'

'Splendid.' She panted, still catching her breath.

'You look better than yesterday.' He commented. Poppy raised am eyebrow.

'Is that a roundabout way of saying I look nice?'

'Your analysis impresses me.'

'Does it?' She replied, smiling but also suddenly becoming aware of her (mostly) bare legs and that this was a complete conversation ender. 'You know, Lily finds it really funny you keep following me.' She said added hastily, trying to deter him from noticing her legs by distracting him with conversation. This was barely true - she'd mentioned that he'd apparently followed her to the library and then commented that she'd been civil towards him.

'I'm not following you, love. This was pure coincidence, other times I've just been making friends with you. I just think you're strangely likeable.'

She laughed, slightly uncomfortable at this almost complement and eager to change the subject slightly. 'You know, I've never seen you when I'm on a run.'

'Coincidence.' He repeated, 'It was just nice to bump into a friend, quite literally.'

She groaned, 'What a cliché.'

'What, me saying you're my friend?' He asked, confused.

'No, saying 'bumped into, quite literally.''

'I'll bear that in mind.' He grinned. 'Are you going to start your run again?'

'I was sort of distracted when someone, apparently my new friend, caused me to stop pretty suddenly and engage in conversation.' Poppy replied, amused.

'I'll let you get on with it then.'

'Thanks.'

They went their separate ways, and after running about 30 metres, Sirius called, 'Nice legs, by the way!'

She rolled her eyes. Typical. He'd been civil for a few minutes, of course he had to throw in a comment like that.

'I'd hex you if I had my wand!' She called back, trying to remember roughly how long she had been running for and feeling her wand press into her leg as she ran.

* * *

'So he was just there as you turned the corner?' Lily asked, puzzled. Poppy nodded. The Arithmancy homework between them had long since been abandoned and they were each on their third chocolate frog.

'Yeah. He says it was a coincidence.'

Lily snorted. 'If he's having to say it's a coincidence then it obviously isn't!'

'Lily...'

'He's trying to get into your pants.' She declared, half jokingly, slamming her hands down on the table for effect.

'Lily, of course he isn't. One - it's only about the third time he's gone out of his way to talk to me, it's not that bad. Two - he hasn't been flirting with me. Three - My tits aren't big enough for him to want to do that. Four - NO.'

'I have never known Sirius to have intentions that are limited to and including friendship.' She reasoned. Poppy sighed.

'Honestly, we're barely friends! Acquaintances at best!'

'Do you want to shag him?' Lily asked quizzically. Poppy gave an exasperated noise.

'I am completely indifferent towards him. Now can we please just get on with this work?' She cried. Lily nodded, satisfied with this answer.

'Yeah, sorry.'

The two witches were lucky to get a solid half hour of work done, despite the various interruptions that were part and parcel of working in the Gryffindor Common Room. At one point, Poppy suggested moving to the library but Lily didn't want to pack up her things. They were almost three quarters of the way through their work when James interrupted.

'Can I have a word?'

Lily sighed, 'I'm working, can't you just leave me - '

'With Poppy.' He interjected. Lily looked embarrassed and returned to her work, whilst Poppy followed James to a concave in the wall by the fireplace.

'So?' Poppy prompted.

'So I've had a think, and annoyingly you're right. Do not let that go to your head. Lily is not my trophy to claim, and she can date Archie if she wants to. If she really likes him, I'm not going to get in the way of it, am I? No. So if anything, you're right - I'll just get on with life. There is no way I'm going to have spent over two thirds of my school life pining after her, so I'm going to try and fancy other girls, and to be honest, if she does like me in anyway she'll probably realise it then.' James explained. There was a few seconds pause, and then Poppy hugged him.

'I've been waiting for you to get that for about a year and a half.' She grinned. It truly was a relief to her - James was not the sort of boy to wait patiently (or impatiently in his case) for a girl to get on the market again, so it greatly annoyed Poppy that that was exactly what he'd been doing. He laughed and they seperated.

'We're talking again?' Poppy checked. He nodded.

'Partly because you told me to tell you when I had thought everything through and partly because I think it's really amusing that Sirius is trying to befriend you after six years and thinks following you and pestering you is the way to do it.' James admitted. Poppy rolled her eyes and slapped his shoulder.

'You and Lily both, lad.'

* * *

The castle was serene, considering it was a Saturday morning, and Poppy had finished her Arithmancy homework, despite her rekindled friendship with James, which usually provided a distraction from any work that needed to be done. The walk to the library was always very enjoyable, mainly due to the prospect of books at the end of it, even if homework was involved too. Poppy was very keen to get her hands on The Guide To Magical Flora, Fauna and Fungi: Asia and Eastern Europe and Captivating Herbs of the Middle East for her Herbology homework.

The library was no busier than usual, and upon entry Poppy gave Madam Farroway a cheerful smile and went about searching for the books. She passed by Frank and Eleanor, both poring over a run down copy of The Life and Ways of a British Muggle - 4th Edition. The two looked up at her and gave weak smiles, which she returned. If she wasn't so busy, she'd probably help them.

She continued to walk to the back of the library, smiling at those she knew and keeping an eye out for any misbehaviour - she was taking Prefect duties seriously.

To her luck, one of the books she wanted was laid across a table already. She smiled to herself and quickened her walk, just as Alice came around the other corner, looking very glum and weighed down with a tattered copies of Know Your Antidotes, 10 Simples Ways to Perfect Your Draught Of Living Death and The Complete Guide to Potions of the 19th Century. She heaved them onto the table next to Poppy's book and sighed.

'I'm done with that,' She said dejectedly.

'Oh, great. Are you alright, Alice?' Poppy asked nervously. Alice shook her head and flicked open a page of one of the books.

'Not particularly.' She replied bluntly. Poppy prepared herself for a talk about emotions or boys, which she was frustratingly bad at, and sat down.

'What's happened?'

'You saw Eleanor and Frank, right?' Alice asked. Poppy nodded.

'Well, I was sitting at the table near them, but ended up moving. She was all over him - flirting and leaning against him and giggling. Honestly, it was infuriating. He seemed to be pretty flattered by it all too. I couldn't focus, so I moved here.' She explained.

'So why are you upset?' Poppy questioned. Alice gave her a pointed look.

'Oh,' she realised, 'You fancy Frank.'

'Bloody hell, Pops, don't tell everyone!' Alice snapped.

'It wasn't that loud...' Poppy grumbled, but Alice didn't hear her, as she was now off on her rant.

'It's just insulting, you know? He's been really sweet to me over the past few months, and we even met up a few times over summer and I really thought he liked me but he's barely spoken to me since we came back. It's quite disheartening when the lad you've fancied for two and a half years starts flirting with you and then gives up because a prettier one's come along, and hey-ho, she likes him too! What a surprise!' Alice complained, jabbing her finger into the table on every stressed syllable.

'Maybe you could talk to him?'

'God, no.' Alice shuddered, 'That would make things worse.'

Poppy, oblivious to why this would make things worse, innocently inquired why it bothered Alice if they were not actually dating. Alice sighed.

'Never mind. You do your work, I'm going to go for a shower. Bye Pops.'

'Oh, alright. Bye Alice.'

Alice left Poppy to work, exasperated but not annoyed, wondering if Poppy had honestly spent the last few years surrounded by teenage girls and their problems - Poppy herself was not an abnormal teenage girl and there was no reason for her to be so terrible at advice and those sort of things, yet she truly lacked an understanding of the way relationships and some friendships worked. If Alice was a nastier person, she probably would not have been surprised that Poppy had never had a boyfriend, a date, or even (as far as she knew) a wee crush on anyone. It was a tad bizarre.

Now alone, Poppy pondered whether or not she should continue to help Alice: clearly she was upset and this was not good, as Alice was rarely snappy or upset, but she had terminated the conversation rather abruptly. Poppy, eternally organised, sighed and fished out an old piece of parchment that she could probably no longer use for any kind of work due to it's uncleanliness and made a list of what her options were in helping Alice.

* * *

BRIEF ANALYSIS: Alice upset as Frank (who had 'been really sweet to her') now seemingly ignoring her but spending time with 'prettier' Eleanor. Jealousy?

1. Tell Frank that Alice is upset he has been ignoring her for Eleanor.

PROS:

•If the talk goes well, Frank can simply apologise to Alice and things will resume

•Simple resolution with no lies involved

CONS:

•Alice specified she didn't want to talk to him about it (however did not say anything about me)

•This could be declared 'interfering' or 'bitchy' by Alice, who is my friend and therefore not someone who I wish to think these things about me.

•This could annoy Frank, causing him to further ignore Alice, which could lead to Alice realising I've told him, finally leading to the outcome mentioned before this.

2. Tell Eleanor.

PROS:

•I'm fairly sure she would take it well

CONS:

•Might be hard to tell her without making her sound like a bitch

•Could result in tension between Alice and Eleanor

3. Remain uninvolved.

PROS:

•Extra time to read, do work, Quidditch practice etc. as I will not have to be updating any party on what the other said or avoiding people.

•Can not be declared a bitch by any party

•Generally avoiding petty school drama

CONS:

•I will have to put up with my conscience violently assaulting me and screaming at me to tell someone

* * *

She lined off the list and looked at it studied it carefully, immediately crossing off the second option. A minute or so passed and she crossed off the first feebly, folding the parchment up gently and resuming her work.

* * *

Several hours later in the Common Room, Poppy was thrilled to have finished all her homework an hour before her patrol and was reading Emma for the second time (how she found the time was beyond most of her housemates, as she always seemed to be busy. In addition to this, you'd only see her reading the same book about three times, and then she'd have moved on. James had once attempted to bribe Mary to find out whether she actually finished the books, and then a year later asked Eleanor to check she actually slept). Being a Gryffindor meant that she had adjusted to reading when surrounded by noise, a very useful habit.

On the other side of the room, Frank Longbottom was working very hard for Herbology, having now had Captivating Herbs of the Middle East in front of him for over three quarters of an hour. He turned the page, and found a slip of empty parchment. He frowned and flipped it over to reveal the other side, which had words on it. His frown deepened at the sight of his name, but he read the parchment anyway. He did not recognise the writing, but upon reading it he began to form a good estimate as to who might have wrote it. He smiled to himself and glanced across the room, seeing an oblivious Alice chatting animatedly to Peter. Next to them, curled up with her feet inches from Alice's hand was Poppy, her glasses almost slipping off her nose. She pushed them up. He squished up the parchment and shoved it in his pocket. He then stood up, and strode confidently over to Alice.

'Hi, can I have a word?' He asked. Peter began to rise.

'With Alice.' Frank added hastily, offering an apologetic glance at Peter who sat back down, a bit embarrassed. Alice raised a (perfectly arched) eyebrow.

'Blimey, he speaks.' She commented sarcastically, raising herself out of the sofa and beginning to move to a quieter area of the room. Every movement she made was the most gorgeous thing Frank had ever seen, and he'd been denying himself of it for the sake of trying to make sure she did feel the same way about him as he did about her. Stupid.

Poppy chuckled.

The pair moved next to a bookcase, which Alice leaned against nonchalantly (and looked gorgeous even doing this, Frank thought). As if to live up to what she was doing, he attempted to look vaguely sexy.

'What are you doing with your face, Frank?' She asked scathingly. She said his name in such a lovely way.

'Nothing.' He replied quickly, abandoning his facial expression.

'Is there anything in particular you wish to discuss?' Alice interrogated coolly, her eyes narrowing slightly. Her beautiful, expressive eyes.

'Oh, well, um, yes. Are you alright?'

'I'm fine.' She replied shortly.

'That's good. It's just - I'm sorry.' He blurted out. Alice tilted her head and edged a millimetre closer, but it had the effect of a metre to Frank.

'What for?'

'I'm sorry that I've barely spoken to you since the start of school, and I'm sorry if you thought I was leading you on, and I'm really sorry for making it seem like I'd ditched you for Eleanor.' Frank reeled off the three things he'd been wanting to apologise for since he first did them (why he did them he didn't really understand - nerves perhaps. He'd never really had a girlfriend.) and he was intensely relieved to be able to do so. Alice's stance became more relaxed and she smiled.

'Great. Friends?'

It was strange how this one word made Frank think. Friends? He wanted to be friends with Eleanor. But Alice? There was no person he could want to be friends with so little. He wanted to completely be with her (his apology had made him realise) and he wanted her to know. He wanted to be the sort of person to Alice who she'd never shut up about and always be thinking about and be her first though when she woke up and her last when she went to sleep. He wanted her to feel as if he was the only thing that mattered. He wanted her to get butterflies at the thought of him and palpitations at the sight of him. He wanted her to hold his hand for every waking moment of the day, and to kiss him even more often - because that was everything what Frank wanted to do to her. Most of all, however, he wanted to tell her that he didn't think he could manage friends, because he cared for her so much more than that and wanted her to know it.

'Friends.' He agreed.

* * *

'Evening, Coogan, you're looking as studious as ever. I have something of yours you may want back.' Sirius announced, falling into the space next to Poppy on one of the couches in the Common Room, an action which was not missed by Lily, who gave Poppy a look that came off as 'Now, let's see if I'm right and he flirts with you.'

'And what is that?' Poppy replied quietly, edging about an inch away from Sirius, who had sat down just a bit too close for her comfort, something she had noticed he did to everyone. He handed her her (now slightly worse for wear) copy of 1984.

'I enjoyed it.' He said, in a way that made it sounds vaguely cryptic. He grinned at her and got up before Poppy could think what to say in reply.

* * *

Generally, James Potter would say there were two things he hated with a passion: Quidditch trials and Severus Snape, however the latter much more than the former.

He truly was honoured to be Quidditch captain, and he thoroughly enjoyed everything about Quidditch, excluding the trials. He didn't know if it was worse now he was captain - he could be held directly responsible if all the rest of the team were pathetic. On the other hand, he no longer had to worry that he would completely cock up at the trials and get the piss taken out of him by Sirius.

Of course, he had to tell everyone that you weren't guaranteed a place on the team just because you were on a previous year, but he was fairly sure he had a couple he'd keep. Normally he would have wanted Sirius from the offset, but as a punishment for an event they had agreed not to discuss, Sirius had been banned from Quidditch. It was likely he'd pick Christopher and Enwezor Cruft as his other two Chasers again, and probably Poppy as his Keeper, and he knew it would be a toss up between Jenny Drinkwater, Eddy Bourneville and Georgina Perranus as their Seeker.

He didn't really know why trials were necessary - maybe that was why he hated them so much.

In front of him stood around 25 Gryffindors (it had taken about five minutes to get rid of confused first years, from Gryffindor and the other four houses), all looking apprehensive.

'Right, I'll be doing trials for each position separately that will last around fifteen minutes. You'll do drills designed to rest your aptitude for that position. You can try out for more than one position. After that, we'll do a quick fitness test and then I'll split you into two teams, and we'll have rolling subs so I can see who you play well with and how are you are in a match situation. Any questions? No? Brilliant. Chasers first.'

An about two hours later, the amount of people had decreased by about a third and the trial match had just finished. James smiled to himself as the remaining try outs cleared up the equipment and chatted pleasantly about what went well and what didn't, and who'd got what position. Gryffindor would have a strong team this year.

Another fifteen minutes later, James was making his way back up to the castle alone. In front of him were Christopher and Mary (who had come along to watch), completely oblivious to his presence a few feet behind them and deep in conversation about something, both nodding violently or laughing every now and then. He could also see Poppy and Lily a bit further ahead, talking in a secretive manner. He had not noticed Lily in the stands, which was strange. He always noticed Lily. Why hadn't he?

Once, in a moment in which James was thinking about his emotions, he thought he only ever said crude or attention seeking things to her because he was worried she never noticed him as much as he did her. James believed very strongly that there was a difference between seeing and noticing. When you see someone, you haven't necessarily processed their existence or thought about them - your brain has just subconsciously confirmed the person you saw is alive. When you notice someone, however, your brain asks you why they're where they are or provides memories of said person. That, he thought, was why Lily never liked him. He noticed her. She saw him.

'Earth to Potter? I've said hello four times now.' An amused voice said from. A metre or so to the left of James was Gillian Palmer, smirking slightly. Gillian was very pretty and she probably knew it, with long dark hair and rosy cheeks, and a magnificent arse - Sirius couldn't see her without saying something about it. Her smirk widened to a grin.

'Generally, people say hello back.' She said, still amused.

'Sorry, hi. Just trying to piece together the team that are going to smash Ravenclaw this year.' James grinned, aiming for a reaction from Gillian, the Ravenclaw Seeker and captain. She scoffed.

'Highly unlikely, Potter. We had try outs yesterday afternoon, and I'll shove myself in a broom cupboard with Snape if we don't beat Gryffindor this year.' Gillian replied, shoving James lightly.

'I'll tell Snape to find his favourite broom cupboard then.' He teased, and she rolled her eyes at him.

'I wish I hadn't said that now! Especially when there's plenty of lads I'd rather be in a broom cupboard with.' She said distantly glancing slightly at James and then turning away quickly. He raised his eyebrows slightly. 'Anyway, I better go and tell my fantastic team who they are. Ta rah, Potter.' Gillian finished, smiling and turning off up another path, her curls flouncing behind her. He didn't want to say it, but he was a bit stunned. Gillian had made a pointed look at him straight after the broom cupboard remark, and he was pretty chuffed that she had. He smirked to himself. Lily Evans who? Poppy would be so proud, and Peter, Remus and Sirius probably would too.

* * *

'Honestly, Poppy, didn't you see him talking to her? He must have halved the population of flies at Hogwarts with his mouth that far open.' Lily ranted to Poppy on their way to the Head's office after dinner, where Lily had ranted about how James had 'cancelled out' his general niceness over the first few days back by being a prat around Gillian. Poppy found the situation very amusing.

'Lily dearest, I hate to be a critic - '

'Bloody liar.'

'Language, flower. As I was saying, I hate to be a critic but for the last six years you've been relentlessly informing me of how you just want James to stop obsessing over you and go after other girls. So, we are on the way to this happening but now, when dearest James does have a conversation with another girl - it could have just been a conversation, Gillian was hardly all over him - you are annoyed. Correct?' Poppy asked. Lily made a noise of disagreement.

'But he was being all... smarmy and pervy.' She shuddered.

'He was talking to her.'

'But you're his friend, you'd protect him - '

'True, but I'm nowhere near as biased as you are. Gillian and James had a conversation that was vaguely flirty and he looked at her arse. Does it matter? Gillian has a fantastic arse.' Poppy said bluntly. Lily sighed.

'She does, it depresses me.'

'Yep.'

'I want an arse like that.'

'Yeah,' Poppy agreed, 'Wouldn't mind either. What's your password?'

'Runtatun,' Lily said clearly, then adding, 'It's Gobbledegook for cake.'

The portrait for the Head's Common Room swung open and the two girls climbed through, the previous disagreement quickly forgotten. Frustratingly for Lily, they were not alone as they would've preferred - James was lying on a couch, tossing a Quaffle a metre or so into the air and then catching it again and repeating. He hadn't shown any sign of noticing the entry of his housemates.

'You said you were going to be with Sirius.' Lily said, annoyed. James sat up and turned to face her.

'He's busy.'

'But you said me and Poppy could have the room to ourselves for a bit.' Lily insisted. He shrugged and tossed the Quaffle lazily.

'I am Head Boy, I am allowed to be here, you know. And Poppy doesn't mind, do you?' He asked, turning to Poppy and receiving a shake of the head from her. Lily gave her a disappointed look and walked towards the stairs up to her dormitory.

'It's alright, I was going to have a shower anyway. Won't be long.' She finished somewhat haughtily, floating off up the stairs, the two watching her go knowing full well she probably wasn't intending to have a shower. As soon as she was out of sight, James patted the couch next to him. Poppy sat down next to him hesitantly.

'Remus.' James said simply. Poppy looked at him, confused.

'What about him?'

'You fancy him.' He stated simply, rolling the Quaffle around his lap.

'You're a wanker.' She replied. He grinned.

'I'm right.'

'You're a wanker.' She reiterated.

'But I'm right. I've known for ages.' He said, smirking and sinking back in to the couch, satisfied.

'You're a wanker and a cocky little shit.'

'You can just say it Poppy, I won't tell him. It's obvious to me, anyway. Just say it: 'I fancy Remus John Lupin'.'

'Do I have to do the middle name?' She asked dejectedly.

'You can do it however you want, sweetheart.' He winked. She ignored it.

'I fancy Remus.' She admitted dully. James whooped. 'But don't be a twat about it, alright? Anyway, change of subject - am I Keeper again?'

'I can't tell you that.' James sang in reply. Poppy glared at him. 'Back to you fancying Remus - '

'Oh for fuck's sake - '

'Back to you fancying Remus,' He pressed on, ignoring her complaint, 'How are you going to tell him?'

Poppy stared at him blankly. 'I wasn't really intending to.'

James sighed at her ostentatiously, 'Honestly, Poops, how do you expect him to know if you don't tell him?'

'Maybe I don't want him to know.' She suggested. James sighed again.

'That completely defies the point of fancying someone. Merlin, Poppy, where on earth would you be without my help?' He said, exasperated. She raised an eyebrow, amused.

'Safer.' She replied quickly. 'You're being very gossipy, Potter.'

'Nothing wrong with that. Why don't you want to tell him?'

Poppy brought her knees into her chest and grimaced slightly, thinking. 'I'm not sure. I'm not afraid of any results of it, I just feel like it would be admitting to myself that someone has a proper control over my emotions, and I know that sounds really overly dramatic and profound but it scares me. I don't want to feel like someone else is controlling me, even someone I like and trust.'

A reply was not needed, because James understood what she was saying, and realised he'd never actually told Lily he fancied her. He always found a way to childishly ask her out or get her attention, because he couldn't admit that someone had a hold over him emotionally.

When Lily came back in ten minutes later, a word had still not been uttered. The two had just sat there in silence, silently agreeing over things without the need to voice them. It occurred to both of them in those ten minutes that this was why they were friends - those occasional moments where there was a complete understanding of the other, even with very little conversation. James and Poppy were not best friends, but they got closer after those few minutes, and only they knew why.

* * *

**I actually really like James and Poppy's relationship, simply because they don't fancy eachother (I mean they shouldn't bc Jily) and they aren't 'best friends' (Sorry but I can't fecking STAND when the main OC and James are 'best friends!1!1' I mean just no, James is best friends with Sirius, and then Peter and Remus no Mary-Sue can get in the way of that. Anyway, thanks for reading don't hate me love you x**


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